He completed the last speculative office development in Edinburgh and in May launched 58 high quality apartments in the pit of the worst economic turmoil for a generation.

While others at the bottom of a well focus on the icy water around them, Dr Ali Afshar - head of Edinburgh developer AMA - is staring at the circle of light above his head.

"My cup is half full," states the Iranian-born father of three. "You have to be optimistic to drive yourself forward - otherwise you are in danger of demotivating yourself to the extent you stop trying.

"We are in danger of being so pessimistic, so gloomy, that you would not want to get out of bed."

Afshar was sent from Persia to the Rannoch School in Perthshire in the late 1960s and continued his studies, culminating in a PhD in structural engineering from Heriot Watt University in 1984.

He set up AMA two years later - which is now very much a family affair - with senior positions filled by he and his brothers, Mike, Benham and Behzad.

The company currently has around 115 residential properties sitting vacant - 11 of them in excess of £1m. At its Caer Amon scheme in Cramond in Edinburgh, six properties, including one apartment and one duplex, are listed at over £1m.

Despite this, AMA anticipates completing another 240 units by December at its massive Springside regeneration of the former Fountain Brewery site in Edinburgh.

He attributes part of this confidence to only developing in Edinburgh, not stretching beyond the bounds of his knowledge and not having exposure throughout the country.

But equally he believes the raft of new financial products launched by financial institutions in the last couple of months demonstrate the Government's bail-out of the banking sector is washing through.

"Recently we have seen more activity and more throughput of interested parties. These are not sightseers: these are people who need to move and want to move.

"Financial flow is still clogged at the bottom end, but at the top informed buyers with financial muscle are coming forward," states Afshar.

He knows the market is worse now but believes doing nothing is not an option.

Talking of his Springside joint venture with the Royal Bank of Scotland and Grosvenor, he says: "Having started development in one of the most vibrant times, you cannot suddenly shut it off.

"That said - we have decided to go at a pace appropriate to market sentiment and launching 58 apartments out of a total of 600 is not unusual, given that last year we sold 17 off-plan."

There is an imperative to driving forward development at Springside. He speaks of "place-making", effectively meaning would-be purchasers will not move into a building site. They need to see a pleasant environment before committing to the largest single investment of their lives.

He will offer incentives to persuade buyers to view his products in the first place, but does not believe dropping prices necessarily works. He thinks buyers are more discerning now than ever and quality is the vital ingredient in winning through. "Slashing prices doesn't necessarily get results and does your brand no favours," he claims.

Beyond that, he feels price culling is like having the goose that laid the golden egg for Sunday dinner. "Selling cheap decimates the very industry that is going to provide you with a future."

He maintains Scotland has fared better than other parts of the UK in terms of price stability and is relatively buoyant about Edinburgh. He does not believe average prices in the capital will fall further than 15 per cent from its peak two years ago.

Nevertheless, he concedes what happens in the financial sector will have a drastic effect on Edinburgh. Unemployment in the city will be the determining factor in how quickly the residential sector will recover or indeed, how far it falls.

That is why AMA has taken its foot off the gas. Of the 240 units it hopes to complete by December, most will be completed to shell and core and made wind and watertight. As sales start to come through, individual units will be fitted out and made habitable. That way the area continues to improve but development costs are kept to minimum.

"The situation is worse now than last year, so we had to adjust. Housing production has fallen over the previous 18 months to two years, so when the upturn happens there will be a shortage in the market.

"Someone has to fill that gap and we hope our development will do that," says Afshar.